Building a case = Building a brand

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Everything in marketing is building a case for something, as a skilled lawyer would do in a courtroom. Think of branding as arguments made at an emotional level about your company.

To brand a company effectively, be very clear about the case you want to make. What the marketplace is to believe and feel about your company - customers, potential customers, investors, regulators, and others - is your lodestar.

Building a brand involves a blend of analytical research, creativity, human insight, and business strategy. It happens over time, not in a single project.

It also doesn't happen in your marketing department.

What the company does is the brand. The people who deliver the company's products and services will ultimately own your brand. Whatever the brand is, they will deliver it.

It helps if everyone carrying the flag for your company has meaningful, coherent messages to pass along about it. Preferably messages that build your case and don't conflict with each other.

Your marketing and PR people must grasp - in fairly rigorous operational detail - what the company does in order to facilitate a case for what's special about it. And their role is to facilitate the organization's telling of its own story.

Are your marketing materials are more compelling than the message they deliver about your company? If so, then marketing isn't helping your company. It's just giving your marketers something to do.

Everything you do and say builds a case for something. Let your case be compelling. Customers are always willing to discover greatness.